Zooey update: six years

I’ve spent six years looking at your pretty face, and marveling that there is nothing at all physically resembling mine – you’re a carbon copy, visually, of your dad. Well, there’s one thing – your freckles. We share that.

But what I’ve spent the last year realizing is you have something else we share. Or at least, that I had growing up. Your own world, inside your head. Imagination, self-entertainment, making things around you come alive: a stick, a piece of cardboard, your own two hands.

The best part about your own-world existence is that you seem to know who you are, in so many ways I still am trying to work out. You exude a sort of self confidence that I’d take even 1% of… And why wouldn’t you prefer your own company? It looks like a blast.

Meanwhile, this year we had the opportunity to spend several weeks dog sitting your new ‘dog cousin’ and I guess there’s no reason to dwell on what we cannot have, but those few weeks you got to explore up close what it means to be animal friendly, to have a friend on a different wavelength, to be generous with cuddles and love to an always-willing creature. You got to live your animal-loving self…

…which is also why we chose to celebrate your birthday at the zoo this year.

On a different note: you haven’t had the typical three years of gan experience that kids normally get. It’s been a wild, painful ride on the formal education front. But informal education – at least that’s worked out. After two and a half years with siblings as your classmates, your English is fantastic (comparatively). You and Nettles are extremely bonded in a way I don’t know would have happened otherwise. Your playtime has been your school hours, your toys have been your school supplies.

One could say it’s been unconventional for you since 2020, but I’d argue you’re not very conventional anyway. Thank you for sharing that with all of us.


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